“It can’t have been easy, seeing Akwan like that,” Harold said.
“Yes, that’s what I meant,” I said. I leaned my elbows on the island, feeling my energy draining away. As much as I wanted to, I knew I couldn’t stay here and stretch out on the sofa. I had too much work to do. I owed it to Akwan.
“You should let Cole help you,” Harold said. “It’s taken a lot for him to put himself out there.”
“He didn’t put himself anywhere. Hera put that deputy badge on him.”
“Even so.” Harold pushed himself to his feet. “I can see you’re a busy lady. I’ll leave you be.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry to boot you out, but I need to talk to a suspect.”
“No need to apologize. I’m the one who showed up without an invitation.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “I appreciate that you’re taking your new role seriously.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to see me conducting interviews in a hot dog suit?”
“As long as you get results, I suppose it doesn’t matter what you wear.”
I smiled. “You might regret that opinion someday.” I grabbed my purse and escorted him to the door. The rain was so loud that I heard the downpour before I even saw it.
“Must be around three o’clock,” I said. I stood on the front porch and waited. I knew that it would be over in a few minutes and that the steam would rise off the pavement, causing an atmospheric mist to form. The humidity would take a couple hours to return, which was nice. In fact, my favorite time of day in Divine Place seemed to be the hours between the downpour and sunset. My hair looked its best and I seemed to have more energy, or at least a more positive outlook and—let’s be honest—I really needed that right now.
Chapter Ten
Lauren-Ann was easy to track down. It helped that she was the only supernatural with that name in Divine Place. What helped even more was the mention of Hat Trick. Everyone in the village seemed to know the band, as well as the fact that the guitarist worked part-time at Noteworthy, a music shop in Zone 2.
I took the ferry across The Great Divide and was pleased to see that Charon had a handful of passengers today. It had to get lonely on an empty ferry hour after hour. It seemed to me that his afterlife experience had a more punitive flavor to it.
“I’d offer you a job as my First Mate, but that position’s been filled today,” he said when I boarded. I glanced to the top deck to see a young satyr at the helm. “I think you spend as much time going back and forth as I do.”
“And you don’t even see the times I drive my golf cart around the perimeter,” I said. “I’m thinking about investing in a Jet Ski.”
He laughed. “You won’t find one of those in Divine Place. Too noisy and disruptive.”
“Let me guess—an HOA policy?”
The ferryman pointed a finger at me. “You’re catching on.”
“That’s too bad.” The enormous lake would’ve made an ideal place to while away the endless hours in supernatural purgatory.
“Not from my point of view. The last thing I need is to maneuver around gods with entitlement issues on their Jet Skis. The merfolk are tricky enough. I have to watch for heads and tails.”
“Merfolk?”
“Mermen and mermaids.”
I scanned the horizon. “I guess it’s like keeping an eye out for sexy whales.”
His brow creased. “Um, sure. How’s the investigation coming along? Akwan was such an interesting villager. I always enjoyed our conversations.”
“I’m going to talk to a suspect now, in fact. No rest for the semi-wicked.” I offered a bright smile. “What was Akwan like?” It occurred to me that Charon would be a good supernatural to offer his insight on the victim. As the ferryman, he tended to be an observer rather than a participant.
Charon stroked his beard. “Friendly but guarded, as many villagers are. He liked to hum under his breath, which I found endearing, although I’m sure many others found it annoying. It’s wonderful that he was able to find a love of music in the afterlife. Not everyone develops new interests here. They want to cling to what was instead of what is.”
“Basket weaving isn’t for everyone, Charon.” I’d been too consumed with marshal duties to enjoy much of anything yet. “What do you mean that he was guarded?”
Charon’s brown eyes were like two pools of chocolate and I became momentarily distracted by a desire for pudding. “We all have moments in our past that we’re not proud of or don’t wish to acknowledge,” he said.
“Really? You’d think everyone would just own it now. They’re all in the same boat.” I looked around the ferry. “Ha! No pun intended.”
Charon wore a vague smile. “I suppose it might be different for you, given that you don’t belong here.”
“Oh, I’ve done plenty of things I’m not proud of and they weren’t all in my distant past either, and I’m more than willing to acknowledge them.” Okay, that was only partially true given the current state of affairs with Cole, but ninety-nine-point percent of the time, I owned my disasters.
“Then you’re a rare villager, indeed,” he said.
A passing breeze blew my hair back off my shoulders and I wished I’d been smart enough to bring a hair tie. “If everyone here emptied their emotional vaults, they might feel like a weight’s been lifted.”
Charon rested a hand on my shoulder. “You may very well have a point, Eloise.”
I leaned against the railing and enjoyed the rare moment of low humidity. “I feel like our flaws are what make us interesting. I mean, if this is the purgatory section, I can only imagine how dull the heavenly realms are with all those perfect angels and their vanilla lives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a little afraid that Jules will stab me with a metal straw and suck me like a thick, borderline attractive milkshake, but you guys should appreciate that there’s a lot of flavor in this place.” By my logic, the lower levels must have even more fascinating residents, albeit under far less pleasant circumstances.
Charon’s chuckle was deep and rumbling, like a supernatural Santa Claus. “I like your perspective. I can only imagine how Cole reacts to your unique observations.” He cut me a sidelong glance. “Say, where is Cole? Is he not on deputy duty today?”
I tensed at the mention of the demigod. I was trying very hard to push all thoughts of Cole into the gutter of my brain. “Not today,” I said shortly.
Charon seemed to pick up on my resistance to that particular topic. “I’m sure you two clever folks will figure it out.”
“I appreciate your support, Charon.” Although I had to wonder whether ‘it’ meant the investigation or something else.
“This is your stop,” he said. “Good luck with your interview.” As he hurried to help passengers disembark, I took a moment to let the warmth of the sun wash over me. The sensation felt good on my skin right now, but I knew in a couple hours, I’d be dabbing the sweat from my forehead. The bowels of Hell had to be so much worse. Everybody probably had asthma from the air quality, and I bet their inhalers were always placed strategically out of reach. I winced at the thought. No, much better to be here inflicting my own brand of torture than down there being tortured by someone else.
I gave Charon a parting wave as I vacated the ferry and strolled downtown in search of Noteworthy. I found the music shop on Cauldron Lane, next to a place called Yarn Spinners. From a quick glance in the window, the shop appeared to be a knitter’s paradise. It was the type of place Nana Jo would’ve gone nuts over. My grandmother loved to knit, although she wasn’t very good at it. In my house in Chipping Cheddar, I had a drawer filled with her misguided creations that I felt too guilty to toss, which said a lot about my love for Nana Jo. I wasn’t a sentimental person by nature, but I couldn’t bring myself to part with them. I didn’t want to think about what might’ve happened to those cherished items now. Maybe Jeff recognized our grandmother’s handiwork and took them for his kids as keepsakes. Oh, well. It didn’t matter anymore. When they say ‘you
can’t take it with you,’ they really mean it.
A bell jingled as I opened the door to Noteworthy. I would’ve expected a sound that was a little more musical—like the opening chords of Back in Black—but they probably had to cater to a wide variety of tastes, so a simple bell was safest. I bet there were softly chiming bells all over the heavenly realms. Zzzzz.
The walls of the shop were lined with instruments, as was the space above my head. Guitars, oboes, and clarinets hovered close to the ceiling, suspended in mid-air by unseen hands. I stared at a double bass directly above my head and thirty scenarios ran through my mind, all of which ended with me flat as a pancake. Thankfully, the pianos were on the floor where they belonged.
A woman darted over to me, her small wings moving so rapidly that they were mostly a blur. Her golden hair crowned her head like a halo and her ears and nose were adorned with delicate silver and gold rings. Aside from eyes that were lined with sparkling silver, she wore no makeup. Although she looked no older than thirty-five, I knew my concept of age had no place here.
“Welcome to Noteworthy. I’m Lauren-Ann. What brings you in today? Ready to master a new skill? It’s never too late to learn in Divine Place.”
I glanced upward at the array of instruments, feeling tempted. How annoying would it be for Gia if I decided to take up the violin? Or even worse—the drums?
“I’m good right now, thanks.” Only when I looked back at her did I realize that she was familiar. “You were at my party.”
“Party?” The pixie’s face seemed to glow as the realization hit her. “Oh, that’s right. The welcoming party. You’re Eloise, the human.”
“And you’re Lauren-Ann, the bass player,” I said. “I guess you’re a regular at lots of events as part of a band.”
“Not just any band. Hat Trick is on everyone’s most wanted list. Did you hear we’re headlining the Divine Place fête in the village square in a few days?”
“I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“You should make sure to subscribe to the social events calendar. The HOA handles it.”
Of course they did. “Will there be other bands playing?” I asked.
“Not like ours. Just the odd musician here and there sprinkled throughout until the real party begins.”
And here was the part where I made our interaction uncomfortable. “It won’t be a problem without your sax player?”
Her face crumpled. “We’re working on a replacement as fast as we can.”
“Do you think you’ll have to give up the gig?”
Lauren-Ann scowled. “We’re not giving up the fête. It’s too big of a deal.” Her scowl dissolved. “Not that Akwan’s obliteration isn’t a big deal. It’s horrible.”
“I understand you and Akwan were pretty close,” I said. “This whole thing must be a shock to you.”
“We’re all in shock,” Lauren-Ann said. “First Zeus and now Akwan. Is nobody safe?” As the brightness of her face faded, so did the glow of her wings. They seemed to be weirdly in sync.
“Would you say you and Akwan were closest of the band members?”
She cocked her head, giving me a hard look. “We were very good friends.”
“Like friends that watch a movie together on Saturday night? Or friends that say they’re watching a movie together on Saturday night but really end up naked on the floor with popcorn in your hair?”
Lauren-Ann absently touched her cropped hair. “Like I said, we were friends.”
Okay, time for a blunt approach. “Someone mentioned that you and Akwan were romantically involved at some point, but I’m guessing the rest of the band didn’t know about it. Thought you might want to talk about that.”
“What makes you think I’d talk to a complete stranger about such a deeply personal secret?”
I made a sweeping gesture. “No one else is here. We’ll pretend we’re drunk in a bar bathroom. I’ve had some of my best conversations there.”
Lauren-Ann considered me for a quiet stretch. “You really are human, aren’t you?” Her shoulders drooped. “The rest of the band didn’t know. We kept it secret because we know what happens when relationships go south. The band inevitably breaks up and we didn’t want to do that to the others, or to ourselves. We both loved being a part of Hat Trick.”
“How long were you together?” I asked.
She pursed her lips. “Hard to say. Time doesn’t exactly work here in the same way. We talk about days and weeks, but they’re not what they were on the mortal plane.”
“Would you say it was a long time?”
She scrunched her nose. “No, but we’d been friends for a long time before we decided to try something new. In the end, we decided we were better off without the romance.”
“So there was no dramatic breakup? No cheating or one of you wanted to stay together and the other didn’t?”
Lauren-Ann tugged on an earring. “No. The passion had kind of fizzled for both of us and thankfully we had the courage to acknowledge it.”
“I understand you were at his house yesterday,” I said, watching her reaction closely.
She maintained a neutral expression. “It wasn’t unusual. We practiced together a lot.”
“Just the two of you?”
“Occasionally. He had something he wanted to show me yesterday, so I agreed to stop by.”
“What was it?”
“Music he was working on.” Her wings continued to flutter at a rapid pace, although the rest of her remained still. I wondered if it helped her burn calories, like sitting on an exercise ball at your desk.
“Do you mean the music books that he kept in his storage chest?” I asked.
“I don’t know where he kept them, but he’d been working on his own music as a side project.”
“Because he wanted the band to play the songs he wrote?”
“Yes,” she said. “He’d been itching to do it for ages. He could be obsessive about things sometimes.”
“Did he manage to share the music with the others before he died?” I asked.
She plucked a hot pink guitar from the space above and began to idly strum. “No, the last time he brought it up, I persuaded him to wait.”
“Why would you do that?”
Her fingers hovered over the strings as she seemed to debate how to respond. “Because it was terrible,” she blurted. “I tried to convince him that the band was better off playing cover songs, but he was certain that his music would somehow revolutionize music in Divine Place.” She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the only thing it would revolutionize was the market for ear plugs.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Akwan wasn’t a natural,” she said. “He just worked really hard at it, which is commendable. Writing his own stuff, though…It wasn’t in the cards.”
“He had pages filled with songs that he’d written by hand,” I said. I imagined the jinni crouched over his table, jotting down notes for hours on end. So much for the ten-thousand-hour expert theory.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “It wasn’t the first time he’d shown it to me. I’d blown him off before and managed to convince him they needed more polish. I didn’t want to tell him outright that they sucked. He could be sensitive.”
“What made him bring up the issue again?”
“The fête,” she said. “He wanted us to play his music there for the first time. Make it a big deal. I told him that he waited too long and that he should’ve asked us sooner. Now we wouldn’t have time to learn new material. He wrote this song called Mythos that he seemed to think was going to be some huge hit, but it needed a lot of work—and when I say work, I mean ripped up and thrown in the trash.”
“That probably ticked him off, huh? After you’d told him to wait.”
She laughed. “You’re not kidding. I hadn’t seen him that angry in a long time. He even broke a few things in the house.”
“He didn’t threaten you, did he?”
She str
ummed the guitar. “No, he wouldn’t dream of hurting me. Besides, he knows how quick pixies are. I could’ve dodged anything he threw at me.”
“Do you have dodgeball here, by any chance?” I asked. “Because, if so, I want you on my team.”
Lauren-Ann snorted. “I don’t know. I don’t do sports. Just music.”
“Is there a chance that Akwan had asked one of your bandmates about playing his original music? Maybe they got into a fight over it?”
The pixie shook her head. “I seriously doubt it. I would’ve heard about it, number one. They all confide in me because I’m the only female. They think that somehow means I’m trustworthy with information and good with advice.”
We both laughed in response to that.
“What did he do after his outburst?” I asked.
“He calmed down and apologized.” Lauren-Ann paused, thinking. “He’s the one that reminded me about your party. I’d forgotten. Now I’m wishing he was the one who’d forgotten.”
“Did you spend time with him at the party?”
“Not too much. He was with Linzy. I try to give them space so she doesn’t see me as a threat.” She began to play a tune I recognized.
“Stairway to Heaven, huh? Someone’s feeling hopeful.”
She smiled. “It’s a crowd pleaser here. Everyone wants to believe we’re only a few rungs below and we’ll make it to one of the heavenly realms eventually.”
“Most villagers seem quiet about the reasons they’re here,” I said. “Why the secrecy?”
Lauren-Ann stopped playing and rested her fingers against the strings. “Honestly, I don’t think everyone here is self-aware enough to know why they’re here. For those who do…” She plucked a string. “You have to consider the fact that this is Divine Place. You won’t have committed the worst acts in the world, but you certainly did enough bad things in your lifetime to be kept out of the good places.”
“Which one are you? Self-aware or blissfully ignorant?” Maybe she’d reveal something that linked her to Akwan’s obliteration. So far she seemed entirely reasonable.
Homicide and Hot Tubs Page 10
